President Xi Jinping will chair the meeting with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The Asian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the two parties are partners, not competitors, and that their common interests far outweigh their differences.
Spokesman Wang Wenbin said, “Changes over a century are accelerating, the international situation is becoming more acute and turbulent, the global economy is lacking momentum, global challenges are emerging, and bilateral relations are also facing new opportunities and challenges.”
He expressed his hope that this meeting would play an important role in building the future and improving mutual understanding and trust through strategic communication and enhancing cooperation for common benefits.
Wang stressed that the sustainable and healthy development of bilateral relations is in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of the two sides as well as the common expectations of the global community.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated that Beijing is a reliable and indispensable partner of the European Union, and called on the bloc to resolve differences through dialogue.
The spokesman stressed that both sides have benefited from bilateral cooperation and that the Asian giant “has never deliberately sought a trade surplus.”
In this way, the speaker responded to Ursula von der Leyen’s recent statements regarding the imbalance in the commercial relationship, one of the main points of friction between the two parties.
In Beijing’s view, this situation “is a result of the combined influence of the macroeconomic environment, international trade conditions and industrial structures of the two sides.”
On the other hand, the spokesman emphasized that the bloc also obtained significant benefits in its exchanges with the Asian giant.
He explained that “more than a third of the exports of European Union companies in China were sold to the European Union.”
Likewise, he stressed that the European Union imposes strict restrictions on the export of high-tech products to the Asian giant, and at the same time “expects exports to China to increase significantly, which may not be a reasonable expectation.”
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